the most useful & apropriate tools to test the wi-fi strength around my home?

[dhubs]

g day dear friends, hello everyone...


well i have encountered some issues - with the signal strength of the wifi here.

well - thank god we re on linux and i have heard that Linux has got some nice tools to do some monitoring and measures here:
well that said: which tools do provide the most accurate and helpful information if it comes to evaluating the network conditions - that is here the strength/speed and besides this also the consistency?


Hmm - Which one to choose here? Thats the question for me!


That said: the Linux systems comes along with quite a set of various (and sometimes different) tools that allowing us to do some tests with the Wireless
Well - and since i am not sooo familiar with the command line - guess that this is another great way to do more (!) on command line.

which tools do you use - and can you recommend me one!?


i really look forward to hear from you.

regards

[michaelk]

iw and nmcli are two utilities that will display signal strength and link quality. The numbers may depend on the drivers so I would use then more as a relative number based on position versus absolute value. Speed depends on many factors. Using iperf and checking with a device on your local network will give you numbers based on your wifi and not the internet. Speed also depends on several factors like number of devices and type of wifi. The farther the distance the slower the speed. Other devices that are not wifi but use 2.4GHz or 5GHz band will interfere as well as stuff in between like walls and metal.

[dhubs]

good evening dear Michael

Thanks a lot for your detailed response! 🙌

That was exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. I?ll definitely check out iw and nmcli for monitoring signal strength and link quality?it?s great to know they?re useful for relative measurements.
Also, your point about using nmap to test speeds on the local network is really helpful. I hadn?t thought of that approach before!

I also appreciate the reminder about interference factors?walls, other devices, and even non-WiFi signals. It makes sense that they could impact performance more than I realized.

Would you say nmap is the best tool for real-world speed tests, or do you use anything else for deeper analysis? Any other favorite tools you?d recommend for troubleshooting WiFi issues?

Thanks again for your help?really appreciate it! 👍

Keep up the great work here - it rocks and by the way: i am pretty sure that this thread will help others too!!

Thank you !!!

regards

[michaelk]

Oops. That was a big goof up, the correct utility is iperf3 not nmap. I corrected my other post.

Using it with a computer that is wired will output the lowest speed which should be your wifi speed of the desired wireless device. Otherwise it might also take in to consideration the wifi speed of the server.

If you have a dual band router which most are these days then it may use automatic band switching or if you are at the edge of reception be connected on 2.4 versus 5 GHz which will always be slower. Your device may then stay on the 2.4 band even though it is moving closer.

Without knowing more specific information about your problems it may or may not be related to signal strength.